Tony Blair's authority received another blow last night when his controversial education bill sparked the largest rebellion by backbenchers for legislation at the report stage during his premiership.

The tally of 67 votes plus two tellers over a rebel amendment which would have required schools to hold a ballot of parents before they became independent trusts, is the largest that Mr Blair has suffered from his own side at the report stage of a bill. It beats the 67 who opposed a cut in disability benefit in a welfare reform bill in May 1999, research by Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart of the University of Nottingham shows.

Labour MP John McDonnell, chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group, said last night: "This is a crippling blow to the education bill, which the prime minister is only able to force through the Commons on the back of Tory votes."

The Conservatives supported the government in the lobbies and the measure passed easily, by 412 to 121.

The government is likely to need to rely on the Tories again tonight when the whole bill receives its third reading today. Another rebellion by Labour MPs could reach last night's tally, though many of the rebels expect it to be somewhere nearer the 52 who voted against the bill on its second reading in March.

Alan Johnson, the new education secretary, won credit from MPs yesterday as he sought to take the sting out of the rebel arguments, though he offered no significant concessions. "Like a majority of the house we don't think that ballots should be compulsory. Now we want to move on and get this bill through and continue to improve standards in our schools," an ally said last night.

Mr Johnson plans to use a speech tomorrow to lay out his own credo for the education department.

Martin Salter, the Labour MP for Reading West who voted for the amendment, said the number of rebels would fall "a long way", and he would vote with the government on third reading today.

"Whilst I readily acknowledge the progress that has been made on the bill from the original white paper, I could find no coherent reason to vote against allowing parents to vote on whether or not their school should be controlled by a trust."

John Grogan, the MP who proposed the compulsory ballot plan, told the Commons: "What's so wrong with one parent one vote? I would urge the frontbench to resist the forces of Conservatism. I think it's a fundamental decision when a school decides to become a foundation. Should trusts be set up by three or four governors on a wet December evening after some sort of consultation?"

The bill will allow schools to become self-governing, under the control of not-for-profit organisations including the charitable arms of private companies. Alcohol, tobacco, gambling and adult entertainment firms are to be banned from taking over trusts, but fast food firms are not automatically restricted.

Jon Trickett, the MP for Hemsworth, warned about "asset disposal, frankly, a form of privatisation". It was "a one way street" taking schools away from the community. "This will be a totally ethnically and religiously divided process where some schools, and some generations of children, particularly from working-class communities, will be left in schools which are destined to perish," Mr Trickett said.

But Mr Johnson argued that ballots should be optional, not compulsory. To do otherwise would be "too dictatorial" and "an unnecessary red herring", he told the Commons. MPs such as Mr Trickett who invoked the suffragette movement and the fight against slavery were "over the top", he said.

"If the governing body believes that the proposal [for a trust] should be put to consultation, then it must be consultation not only with parents at that school, but with parents at feeder schools, too," Mr Johnson argued. "There are many ways to consult, and my point is that a ballot is not the only one."

Nick Gibb, a Conservative education spokesman, enjoyed telling Mr Johnson that his side was "more government than the government when it comes to this bill". A Labour backbencher heckled that it was "a good Tory bill".

Mr Gibb said the success of Shropshire's Thomas Telford school, the independently governed city technology college which tops the league tables of state schools, had been attributed in part by its head, Sir Kevin Satchwell, to the absence of "interminable meetings" with the local education authority. New freedoms for schools would help raise standards, Mr Gibb said.